Since 2012, she was unbeatable. With its 36 titles of champion of Italy, it is indeed Juventus Turin which holds the record of coronations. While she could have gone for a tenth in a row and inscribed her name a little more in the history of Italian football, we are closer to the handover for the Bianconeri, who play Fiorentina this Sunday 25 April.
For the first in nine years, Juventus sees the title slip away, in favor of Inter Milan. Currently 3rd in the championship, 11 points behind the Interist leader, the Vecchia Signora has a series of missteps. Five defeats in total and eight draws, Juve is far from Inter who have only two defeats this season. It is not without a twinge of heart that Guglielmi Amor, president of the supporters’ club of Juventus, brings up the situation: “It’s not a small team that will win the championship, it’s Inter Milan. But it’s also good that they pass the baton a little, it raises the level of football. It is not always the same who win. So it’s true, this year, we had several video refereeing decisions that were not favorable to us. But we can’t rest on that. ”
A feverish season which also took place in the Champions League. Eliminated in the round of 16 for the second year in a row, Juventus failed to face FC Porto. The Bianconeri used to rub shoulders with the top 8 of the prestigious European competition and reached the final in 2015 and 2017, times not so old. It now seems like a distant memory. Last hope to grab a title this season for Andrea Pirlo’s men, the Italian Cup final. On May 19, against Atalanta, the Turin club will have the opportunity to restore the image of a disappointing season …
A waltz of coaches and a lack of experience
Juve was the embodiment of stability. From Antonio Conte coach from 2011 to 2014 to Massimiliano Allegri, 2014-2019, eight years have passed. But above all an accumulation of titles and an undivided domination of Serie A. The express passage of Maurizio Sarri (2019-2020) did not last. To succeed him, Juve had high hopes in Andrea Pirlo, former midfielder of the Turin house.
The arrival of Pirlo already raises questions. He takes the helm on August 8, 2020, just eight days after making his reserve team coaching debut. The neo-coach turns into a firefighter on duty after the dismissal of Maurizio Sarri. A decision that left supporters skeptical, especially Guglielmi Amor: “The results are not good. But it’s not the team, it’s mostly the coach. I do not understand why they put Andrea Pirlo. He was a very good player, but put him as the coach of the Serie A, it is not possible, he is a young coach. It was Juventus 3 that he should have coached. They must have had no one else to replace Maurizio Sarri. “
The baptism of fire will not have the expected influence and coincides with the end of a reign in Serie A. With the aborted Super League project, another hazardous choice of President Andrea Agnelli, it is the whole image of the club that is tarnished.
The image of Andrea Agnelli dogged
As if Juve’s failed season was not enough, the Super League fiasco has also come down a little more on Vecchia Signora. By participating in the project of this competition, Andrea Agnelli, President of Juventus, has drawn the wrath of other Serie A clubs, in particular, his counterpart from Torino, Urbano Cairo: “How can you come here to talk about solidarity when you sabotaged the negotiation with the funds, already knowing that you were doing the Super League? How can you negotiate the fundraising deal when you are already working in the Super League ? How is that possible? It’s a sad, a peephole. “
Founder and one of the drivers of this disastrous new league, Agnelli now finds himself in turmoil at the worst possible moment to the point where his presence at the head of the club is being debated. A terrible disavowal for the son of Giovanni Agnelli who was in his time and behind the scenes the greatest leader of the Old Lady.
to see also
“The Super League project can not take place,” admits Andrea Agnelli (Juventus Turin) after the withdrawal of the six English clubs
CR7, the failure to conquer the Champions League
By signing at Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo aimed to win the most prestigious of European competitions with a third different club. Four times winner with Real Madrid and once with Manchester United, the Portuguese came to Piedmont to garnish his record and incidentally his bank account via very advantageous tax provisions for foreign players arriving in Italy.
If the Bianconeri have already won the Champions League twice, their last coronation dates back to 1996. An eternity for a club of this standing. The opportunities were not lacking with seven finals lost including one in 2017 against Real Madrid of … CR7. Hence the idea of enlisting his executioner (Ronaldo had scored a double) to lift the cup. But since his arrival in the Turin club, Juve has never exceeded the quarter-finals in C1.
The arrival of the Portuguese did not allow this final step to be taken. Still a quarter-finalist (released by Ajax) in 2019 for the first season of the former Madrid player in Turin, Juve was then successively eliminated in the round of 16 by Lyon (2020) then by FC Porto (2021). The Portuguese’s state of form is not in question since at 36, he still has a series of individual performances. Top scorer in Serie A with 25 goals in 28 matches, he has scored 4 goals in 6 Champions League games this season. But despite his stats, Ronaldo is still chasing a new European title with Juve. The club has been waiting for him for 25 years.
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